Last week, 64 percent of Winnebago County property owners discovered their taxes are going up, even as the county’s assessed value is dropping. Rockfordians’ tax rate is now a whopping $14 per $100 of assessed valuation, the highest ever.

And yet, the majority of local governments, many run by so-called “conservatives,” continue to increase their levies every year, with little or no debate.

Levies are dollar amounts set in November and December. The levy determines the tax rate based on equalized assessed valuation of the tax district. It does property owners no good to plead with local governments to cut spending AFTER their annual levies are set. You’ve got to do that BEFORE.

On Monday, Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen and other county leaders came in to talk with the Editorial Board.

Christiansen shared statistics about the Winnebago County’s declining equalized assessed value. For the 2010 tax bill, the county’s EAV was nearly $4.8 billion. In 2011 that dropped to $4.6 billion; in 2012 it was down to nearly $4.1 billion.

The 2014 tax bill is based on an EAV of not quite $3.8 billion.

That’s a decline of $1 billion in EAV from 2010 to 2014. And it could get worse. The county projects that EAV will decline to $3.3 billion for 2017 tax bills. That’s an additional $500 million drop!

Sooner or later the shrinking EAV will affect all Rockford-area governments’ bond ratings unless we turn our economy around.

County government is trying to set a good example. Since 2008 county government has reduced employment by 200, and spending has been reduced $22 million.

Even so, “I’m not getting any calls from people saying they’re not getting service,” Christiansen said. The county’s decision to change its health care from the “You breaka, we fixa” model, to a wellness model, is paying off.

In six months, Christiansen said, “we have reduced health care expenditures more than $1 million.” The city of Rockford also is launching wellness-based care.

Local governments could all be good stewards — I wish — but we’d still have a problem in Illinois. The governor and General Assembly continue to rely disproportionately on property taxes to pay for local government services, especially public schools. Illinois ranks 50th in state dollars spent on public schools. Our constitution, however, says, “The State has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education.” We’re violating our own constitution, and no one in Springfield thinks that’s a problem.

Page 2 of 2 - That’s why the campaign for governor is, at this point, meaningless. It’s a series of charges and countercharges. I don’t give a damn.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bruce Rauner must tell us in detail how they’ll improve the business climate here so businesses can create more jobs, which in turn would create more tax revenue. How will they lower the overall tax burden while reducing the reliance on property taxes?

People are not only angry, they’re ready to vote with their feet: Last week a Gallup Poll found that half of all Illinoisans would leave the state if they could. The candidates must tell us how they will make us want to stay in Illinois.